Arizona State Sun Devils

ASU football’s bowl win by the numbers

Todd Graham and the ASU football team capped off an eight-win season Saturday in San Francisco with a 62-28 dismantling of Navy in the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl. And what better way to say goodbye to the 2012 season, than breaking down the Sun Devils’ bowl win by the numbers.

2.5 – No one is for certain whether ASU’s Will Sutton will return to school next year. But if Saturday’s game was the last in the career of the 2012 Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year, he certainly made it count. Sutton recorded 2.5 sacks en route to the game’s Defensive MVP honors.

5 – The number of touchdowns redshirt sophomore quarterback Taylor Kelly accounted for against the Midshipmen, tying a career-high he set back on October 11 against Colorado.

8 – The number of wins Todd Graham recorded in his first season at ASU, surpassing the number he won in his first year at Rice and Pittsburgh. Graham also became the first coach in school history to beat UA and a bowl game in his season in Tempe.

9 – ASU scored touchdowns on their first nine possession’s of Saturday’s contest. They also averaged more than nine yards per play vs. Navy.

25 – Todd Graham’s disciplined ways were on display one last time Saturday. The Pac-12 leader in fewest penalty yards this season had only two infractions for 25 yards in the 34-point win.

28 – The Sun Devils gave up 28 points on Saturday, half of which came with the game out of reach. Coming into the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl, Navy had averaged more than 36 points per game.

33 – Until Saturday’s win, it had been 33 seasons since ASU beat rival UA and won a bowl game in the same year.

57 – Junior tight end Chris Coyle passed Zach Miller on Saturday for the most receptions by an ASU tight end in a single season. He finished with 57 receptions and five touchdowns in 2012.

62 – The Sun Devils’ scoring output in San Francisco wasn’t just a season-high, but also a school record for most points in a bowl game and a Kraft Fight Hunger record for most points scored by one team.

159 – Less than a week after the tragic death of his brother, junior running back Marion Grice returned to the ASU football team with a bang. Grice ran for a season-high 159 yards en route to the bowl’s Offensive MVP honors.

2005 – ASU did just about everything right Saturday, but most importantly Todd Graham and Co. left with the program’s first bowl win since the 2005 Insight Bowl.

2007 – Todd Graham’s eight wins in 2012 were mighty impressive considering the uncertainty going into the season. The last time a first-year ASU head coach recorded eight or more wins was Dennis Erickson (10) back in 2007.